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Comment by lez | Hacker News Reader

Just as a side note, the photo in the article was taken from an angle that you can't see the "crowd". Even the parliament can be seen from between one of the participants legs.

Making it seem to be a large protest is a well-known deceivement tactic in politics.

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A couple more pictures: https://hungarytoday.hu/climate-strike-budapest-draws-thousa...

There's about as many participants as in a large picnic. "Draws thousands", probably if you don't know how to count.

For comparison, this is during recent Chile protests: https://santiagotimes.cl/2019/10/26/a-million-chileans-march...

I was in Santiago last year, that is a lot of people. At least as big as filling the national Mall from capitol to Washington monument, eg the part with big open fields when you count the ancillary streets in that protest

There's a few hundred people in those pics.

There are ways to check that. I've used the bridge photo as a reference: https://www.mapchecking.com/#47.4984682,19.0412546;47.498538...

Bottom left of the marked area are those lion statues, while the top right is the lowest point of the chains between the two gates, which is as far as I can see the crowd using that reference. 1 person per meter is a pretty low estimate for a protest walk, but I took it as an average anyway since I can't see the density that far back. I've ended up with 1890 people, and I'd say that pretty much the lowest estimate you can get from that photo.

You're right, the bridge is very narrow and the lens has a very long field, which makes the picture a bit deceptive (useful also to give the impression of a concentrated crowd). The bridge is about 6 metres wide (two narrow car lanes) but the farthest visible point is about 250 metres away. So it could be approximately 1500 square metres, and a crowd of about 1000-2000 people, although those who are actually visible are far less.

Nice tool though, I'll use it again!

Hard to take that crowd seriously if the front row is using the taste of vegan lady genitalia as an argument for climate change.

To be frank, I think you might be projecting American prudishness on European (attempts at) humour.

Trying to make a point with humourous signs is pretty common across demonstrations in Europe and using sex jokes for humour is too. I'm not saying that this is a particularly funny one, but I am saying that your reason for not taking a protest seriously says more about you than about the protestors.

(I think the argument about the tiny crowd and the misleading photography is a lot stronger)

> (I think the argument about the tiny crowd and the misleading photography is a lot stronger)

"Stronger" in what sense? I don't understand the point people are trying to make regarding the crowd size at one particular demonstration. Are you suggesting that the Budapest city councilors were somehow "tricked" into approving this motion unanimously, just by showing them a few photos from strange angles?

I think the point people were making/implying is that there is hardly any public support, or interest in this initiative by those who live in the city. It is more a kind of insider baseball between the politicians and the readers of such articles.

I'm not making any point really, just that if you're going to draw any conclusion about anything from that photo alone, then "omg that sign says 'pussy'!!1" wouldn't be my first pick.

I agree we have a prude-ish society but I think there are plenty of great arguments that can be made about the environment without resorting to shock value. I'm not offended by the sign, but I can immediately look at that person holding the sign and know that they don't have a deep, well considered world view...

Wow you can tell all that about a person just by a look at them on a photo?

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